Porsche’s Vanthoor leads opening practice at Interlagos

Porsche Penske Motorsport's No. 6 963 set the benchmark time in Free Practice 1 for the FIA WEC runners today at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, aka Interlagos. Laurens Vanthoor set the car's quickest time, a 1m25.176s early in the session, which served as the first chance for the teams to run on the circuit's new asphalt.

Five manufacturers ended up in the top six, with the No. 50 Ferrari 499P second and the No. 20 WRT BMW third. The best time from the No. 50 was a 1:25.260 from Antonio Fuoco, putting the car within a tenth of the quickest Porsche, while the No. 20 M Hybrid V8 took third with a 1m25.330s from Rene Rast.

Completing the top five were the No. 7 Toyota, which took pole last year with a 1m23.140s – a time to keep as a reference as teams unlock pace today and tomorrow – and the No. 15 BMW. JOTA's No. 38 Cadillac ended up sixth.

Further down the order, the Le Mans-winning No. 83 AF Corse 499P set the eighth-best time. That was quicker than the fastest Alpine (No. 36), Peugeot (No. 94) and Aston Martin (No. 009), which slotted in ninth, 10th and 11th respectively with laps within 0.307s of the No. 6. Remarkably, all bar the No. 51 Ferrari and No. 007 Aston Martin were within a second of Vanthoor's time.

More Le Mans/WEC

Garage 59 stars while WRT shows championship potential on WEC opening weekend

Toyota’s century: Taking stock of another Hypercar milestone at Imola

Toyota upstages Ferrari to take Imola 6 Hours win

The No. 007 would have ended up with a faster time had Harry Tincknell not had his times deleted for speeding in the pit lane. Brendon Hartley and Robert Kubica were also guilty of the same offense and were fined.

In LMGT3, it was a 1-2 for AKKODIS ASP's Lexus RC F GT3s. The No. 87 was marginally quicker than the No. 78, with a 1m35.010s from Jose Maria Lopez in the first session for the teams using the new Goodyear Hard tire compound.

Best of the rest was the No. 33 TF Sport Corvette, with a 1m35.293s. The No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman Vantage was fourth, with the No. 81 TF Corvette fifth.

There was only one incident of note in the session, which started 17 minutes later than planned. The No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari stopped out on track with Francesco Castellacci at the wheel, bringing out a brief full-course yellow while the car was recovered on a flatbed.

FP2 is set to get underway later today at 3:45pm local time.

RESULTS